Robotic surgery has been performed for hysterectomies, prostate surgery and other procedures for many years. Companies such as Intuitive, Striker, Ethicon and others provide robotic equipment and tools for use with those procedures including robots, trocars and other devices for directing instruments into and out of the abdominal cavity for use in performing those procedures. There are non-robotic procedures to address these medical issues and others as well.
One common issue in some surgeries such as hysterectomies and prostate work is that the bladder or other organs and/or tissues can either obscure the view of the surgeon operating a robot and/or crowd the area where the doctor is working either with, or without, robotic assistance. Typically, a surgical assistant will utilize a probe suction device to push the structure out of the way such as the bladder from view. Unfortunately, the typical suction instrument often provides an elongated probe with dimensions to fit through the trocar cross section. The bladder can sometimes unfortunately migrate its way around the instrument to obscure the view or otherwise be in the way.
Accordingly, a need exists for an improved device for insertion through a trocar for surgery or other procedures to be able to use to better assist the surgeon and/or to maintain a desired field of view inside of a patient.